


In his shoes

by ymidoingthis



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Minor Haruno Sakura/Uzumaki Naruto, Shinachiku Uzumaki - Freeform, Team Taka as family, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Uchiha Sasuke-centric, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25010491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ymidoingthis/pseuds/ymidoingthis
Summary: Sasuke meets Narusaku child.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	In his shoes

Sun is melting down the edge of the last leaf of Konohagakure, it's light spreading and bouncing on tufts of dreams, splattering into vermillian, magenta, grey, fuschia off the blue of Shinachiku's eyes, as he stood there transfixed, glued in the clay of the dumpster graveyard. He's been staring and staring and staring - for Kami knows how long, the man from the picture folded in his shirt's front pocket, or so was he told by his tou-san,standing right there, in the last place he'd expected to see him. A lone figure in an empty graveyard on the outskirts of the village. Uchiha Sasuke - the man with dark looks and a peculiar duckbutt who was friends with his parents, who had left them for some "family business"( as the way kaa-san worded it) when they were a part of the genin team, and who according to rumours his parents refused to address came back straight away to their fire nation's jail as a highly controversial international criminal, only to leave them immediately after, and never be heard of again, at least by the commoners. He used to write letters to old man Kakashi, but stopped contacting them some time after he was born. According to tou-san, "bastard ghosted out right when I became the hokage", with no bite or bitterness on his face or voice, or perhaps in the other man's intentions, at all.

Chrysanthemums, not quite as luminous nor vibrant as the ones from auntie Ino's shop, rest on a stone where the name Itachi Uchiha rests in desolation. The man's face is morbid, for a while it seems he might as well have been one of the bodies from the graves who opened the lids of Yomi; face ashen, pale, eyes drooped in apathy, shoulders hunched in misery, fingers tracing the carvings, shaking with the leaves sticking on his black cape that drapes over his left arm.

Shina frowns, as the sun goes further down south, towards the mansion of the Fire nation's daimyo, Ikkyuu, the old man with the green beard( who on earth has green beard?!- he had scrunched his face at the outlandish colour, "rich, coming from the son of a woman with pink hair", Tsuna baa-chan had quipped in the ceremony hall). The ceremonial dinner, hosted by the wealthy Fire nation's daimyo, was attended by nearly all the rich ninja socialites. His father had first planned to go all be himself, but later on decided against it, which meant five hours of constant grilling by his mother to behave or else with the scary mom glare and all the rich people cacophony, which according to auntie Ino, is actually very different from the obnoxious loudness his father blared 24/7 as a kid.

His parents were not born particularly wealthy, his father had lived most of his childhood in neglect and ostracisation, scraping on monthly stipends, and the habit of spending money in scruples had stayed with him till date. His mother was born to a normal civilian family, had decided to become a kunoichi cause "it was cool back then"( as tou-sanwould snicker and mouth Sasuke-kuuuun with heart eyes, in an apparent imitation of his mom's childhood self, which would earn him a non-chakra enhanced smack in the head; he knew his mom could crack his skull if she was serious) but never had she expected to be teamed up with star crossed soul brothers alien transmigrants tangled in an intergenerational brotherhood conflict. Shina didn't like it but he surely could understand why his parents were so high profile and celebrated, according to "lore", yes they were that old, they were war heroes. His father had singlehandedly saved their village from a foreign invader once, and his mother was the famous across borders as the best medical ninja, both of them venerated war heroes. There is nothing worse in the world than having celebrity parents, though, he scrunches his nose in disapproval. He gets distracted really easily.

Sunlight lingers on the last thread of his clothes as the man turns around to see him, coal eyes searing back at him, as they widen for the slightest of what maps like a nanometre; he approaches him, stooping down to his eye level - and Shina has an urge to run away from the bottomless eyes cause this man looks like a haggard freak - nothing like the mystical unicorn prince charming his father described him as - up close, he's frightening. His eyes are frigid, closed off and bottomless, so this is what it must be like to see a criminal up close, he thinks to himself. Ex-criminal, his mind corrects, his tou-san has some messiah-nic powers that can reform the hardest of souls on the planet, even Kurama once used to be a fearsome demon once, if tou-san can set a beast straight, what folly can a puny human commit, he assures himself.

* * *

Sasuke stares at the child in front of him. He is seething in rage, in splittering kindreds, the ones that churn your blood and make you seethe your veins, and he doesn't really know what he's angry for, or what he's angry at. He's been an angry man for most of his life - angry at the dead and the living, at the nascent, at the obstacles, at the bystanders, angry at the world, his entire teenage life was a temper tantrum, Seigetsu had once snarked, sincere to the last water drop in his body. Now he's calmed down, grown up, not really angry anymore; so he's been told, and so he believes, and yet, a little bubble of anger he'd buried somewhere inside has erupted, for the first time in years. He doesn't really know where it came from, or maybe he does, he just can't put a finger on the source of it, it's like he's back to being 16, insolent, foolish, and self-fixated as he was, or maybe he never really grew out of it. The peace inside him was merely an illusion, just like the peace oustide. He spares a glance at the kid, who's been gawking at him for quite a while now, and immediately something arrests his attention, taking away the anguish out and replacing it with a familiar pain in his chest.

The sky takes him in with a countenance of fear, wonder, apprehension and curiosity all at once, with the same childlike mischeivousness he once saw in a foolish looking blonde kid, scanning his shitty outfit( he knows he looks like a homeless beggar, he hasn't changed his clothes in a week now, and the journey had worn him out) with the same naive judgement he saw once in a pair of green eyes. He is small, a little fellow, a splitting image of **him** \- Juugo's voice informing him of Naruto's and Sakura's newborn baby echoes back from somewhere in his brain, and throbs against his eardrums, materialising in front if him in the shape of this...shadow clone.

He had been released from jail the year he'd been born. He remembers how stressed out Naruto was, his endless whining about the elders not granting him a parole to attend his wedding. Sasuke wanted to tell him he probably wouldn't attend his wedding even if he was a free man anyway, he was not one for ceremonies and rituals, especially not of the Leaf anyway, but decided against ruining his pre-nuptials.

* * *

So he stayed quiet, watching Naruto rant ferally, finally resigning and settling down with a crestfallen face. "Shikamaru is throwing me a bachelor's party tonight, I invited Gaara too, but he was busy with the kazekague duties", he pouted, "I am getting married, and my friends are either away brooding in jail or doing paper work in office, even Sakura-chan won't be there."

"It's a bachelor's party Naruto, and she's your fiancee," was the expected dry response, "B..But ...ughh Sasukeee you don't understand! What is the point of me celebrating my bachelor life if I can't do it with my friends!"

"Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba are your friends too?"

"Yeah, but I want all of my friends there...", Naruto smiles, not quite uncharacteristically, staring up at the wall of the prison, fingers curling around the rods. It was forbidden for anyone save the jail guards to come in this highly monitored section, but which power on their planet would stop Naruto?

Sasuke stared at Naruto's upturned profile in the dimly let chamber, the curve of his lips lifting his cheeks, and in that glance he knew, he'd known this smile for too long to not notice it, it was one of Naruto's personalised stepford smiles. Years had gone by but Naruto is Naruto, still as naive as ever, still as cunning as when he wanted to be. Compartmentalising and cherrypicking the golden parts of his heart and putting them on display. He knew Naruto had been trying his best to get him out of jail for the past few years, which he frankly, found as selfish as selfless of him, given fucking Mizuki, the dude Sato, his jail neighbour told him had once tricked Naruto into stealing a scroll, was still rotting in jail. Sure, Mizuki was a piece of shit, but the stench of his shit smelt of roses if you compared it to Sasuke's criminal record. Even from a moral perspective, had Mizuki ever planned to slaughter an entire village, or stabbed his friend's lung( gone for the heart actually) for power? Sasuke knew Naruto was not a fool, nor an unshaking saint that could "take all the hate" on himself, or maybe he was and he had underestimated him, like always; he knew what it's like to be alone in a pool of ass-kissing admirers left and right.

"Still such a child, Naruto", he mirrored with a stepford smile of his own, his self shocked at the relevation, since when did he began the poster boy of rainbows and sunshine like Naruto, since when did he even begin to **try** ; inspite of rarely seeing him those days, it seemed like Naruto has rubbed off on him. Or maybe it was just the ambience of the jail is what is doing weird things to his brain, the other day he found himself initaiting a conversation with Sato. Naruto nodded at him, quietly, shaking his hand, and his golden mane disappeared in the blackness of the exit gate.

* * *

It's hilarious, in a moment, that causes his heart to fly, as he takes in and swallows sunshine blonde hair, whiskers on the cheeks, and a really huge forehead. His feet drag towards the spot the kid is trembling at, as his knees crouch down, and his hands ruffle the soft tuft of his golden locks, his body has suspended all voluntary action, it just moves on it's own.

* * *

May in Amegakure is hot, swealty, thick with humidity; the heat weeps with a boisterousness that is lost in the silence of the wildernesses outside its borders. The impact of the cacophony is perhaps so loud, the aftermath is left with anything but the stunned silence of a funeral. Funeral of the divine, the mortal, the dead.

Not long ago was this land anything less red than the wasteland of chest-thumping glory of the bigger mortals. Leaders had come and gone, promises and vows of peace, prosperity, money, money, more money, "we won't beg for scraps anymore", and Ame wiped the wetness away off it's face away each time with valiant children on the frontlines, and with each falling body it cried, cried, cried. The rains would never stop.

Karin woke up from her overextended-to-evening afternoon nap. "Fell asleep, again?", Suigetsu asked incredulously, as if he just didn't wake up from a "five hour nap" thirty minutes ago, "maaan...whyyy am I the only responsible adult here?"

If Karin was still a teenager, and a horny one pursuing a homicidal gay man at that - she would've splashed Suigetsu's face on a rock in a futile and impotent display of anger. But now she was twenty-seven, a grown-up, mature woman. She stared at him in a Sasuke poker face.

Suigetsu frowned- sure they had "hit the thirty bomb", but that didn't mean they Karin would ever be the bigger person. That was unfathomable. It'd be like Sasuke responding to 'official letters from Konoha', it was a cloud-cuckoo land for the never-tiring optimist who believed Iwa and Kusa would stay friends even long after the world war, just by the help of their shitty UN meetings and trials, their war criminals only ever rogue shinobis not associated with the military factions of the bigger nations. But he was at his core, a pessimist. And a perpetually tired man. So tired.

And true to his calculation, a frying pan came flying, smashing his face, splashing it away on Sasuke's cat, who spared a peak at him with the most condescending peak possible on a little beast with four legs. She was even more unpleasant than Sasuke.

He could predict the future. He was afterall, a pessimist. Sasuke should've stayed as the black hole of all hatred, he thought to himself.

"Aren't you too old for this childish violence now?"

Karin narrowed her eyes," we are the same age, and this is the first time I've retaliated to your cheap provocations in MONTHS! You're old now Suiegtsu, you're bordering thirty, look at your hair, they're all white now! This is so embarassing."

"I did it for the sake of nostal -"

His face got splashed midway in the sentence with a fist, "and may this nostalgia never end."

"Any news from Sasuke?", Meoko purred and ran into Juugo's embrace as soon as his voice interrupted their fight, "the invasion is at our feet."

"His last letter said it's highly unlikely Ikyuu or Togashi would even consider helping us. He won't ask the hidden villages for help either, even though I think with his influence Naruto surely could negotiate things with Togashi" , Juugo continued witha frown of irritation settled on his face.

"Cut him slack - man, I'm sure he's trying his best. Sasuke cares more about place than anyone, I don't think it's an ego game for him." Juugo nodded and settled on the sofa, reading the letters and scrolls Sasuke had assimilated and organized over the course of past few weeks.

Karin's didn't widen in horror anymore, unlike the first twenty times something like this happened, over the course of a decade a lot had changed. She had changed. And this role reversal of Juugo and Suigetsu - where Juugo had begun questioning Sasuke's decisions and Suigetsu would go defensive over him, as jarring it'd be to someone who might've them in their teenage years, was something she had grown accustomed to.

The grass in the wasteland clawed it's leaves around Shinachiku feet, freezing him in that place in the sweltering heat of May, as Sasuke's hands reached out to him - is he going to kill me for me stalking him? - his eyes squeezed shut - as a large hand reached out to his head and started petting him. For a few seconds the hand kept stroking his hair, then stopped and rested on his head. Shina dared a peer to the dangerous face, and mayyybe he wasn't that scary up close, because what greeted him up there was one of the softest smiles he'd ever seen. Impossibly tender. Like the way he'd find his mother watching him at times, often when he'd wake up from sleep. Or the look his father gave him when he came back him screaming in joy that he had made sooo many friends on the first day of school itself. It was a special look he hadn't seen in people outside his family, like his grandmother after a fit of laughter of watching him imitate his mom in a pink wig a few days back.

He had dark eyes, really dark, to the point where you could not distinguish the pupil from the iris. The same eyes that were filled with anguish a few moments back looked starkingly similar to green eyes, blue eyes, brown eyes, eyes who looked at him with same mirth when they cradled him in his arms. Happy eyes. Eyes of family.

"What are you doing out here kid, all alone in a graveyard? Your mother would be worried about you", a deep voice rumbled from the man's throat, as he removes his hand from his head, Shina feels a sweat colder. "I. . .", he opens his mouth, closes, gulps back and " Sasuke!"

The man's eyes broadened at that, "I know who you are!", Shina pointed a finger accusingly, "you are Sasuke, I saw your picture in an article in 'top 10 most dangerous criminals on planet' and father told me you were my friend! "

"Alright, I won't hurt you, stop shouting now."

"I...I...", Shina opened his mouth and gasped air, and continued," father told me they sell a lot of nonsense about you cause they need money and they are jealous that they are not as cool."

"Of course, your father would say that", Sasuke scoffs, rolling his eyes.

"Is it true then?", Shina implored, " all they say...you look very scary when you are angry but not so much when you smile."

"..."

"You look nice.

Like family."

For the second time in the day Sasuke had the wind kocked out of gut; ridiculous crystal, blue eyes, shiny blonde hair -he can see a bit orange here and green there and maybe if he looked longer he will find something grey there( surely, he must have picked some habit from Kakashi) - he averted his eyes from the little, naive face so astonishingly and painfully similar to his fool of a father. Astute, observant, impossibly smart for his tiny age, easily trusting and making a home outside his immediate blood. . . .he's inherited the best if his mother and the worst of his father.

"It's getting late, you should get home now, or your parents would be worrying about you", he says with his regular poker face. "They won't, they don't care about me", the little guy mutters under his breath.

"Huh?", Sasuke's eyebrows arched up .

"You won't ask me my name?", he squeaked out.

"What is your name, Shinachiku?", Sasuke asks amusedly, holding his small hand, "come with me."

He walked the kid out of the graveyard. "You know the way back home, do you?"

"Yeah."

Sasuke stared at the kid for sometime, contemplating some more, before finally arriving at his decision. If someone saw him he'd be in trouble but he couldn't leave him alone after sunset either. Furthermore, from his eyes he could tell he was straight up lying. He was a terrible liar, just like his mother, he thought.

Before he knew, in a flash, Shina was in the main quarters of Konoha's market, near the hokage building. He turned around to see Sasuke looking around cautiously, as if he could be covert about his appearance in a crowded marketplace, "Sasuke-san! How did you bring me here-"

"Lying is bad, Shinachiku", Sasuke replied sombrely.

"How did you. . . "

Sasuke's face curved into a smirk dipped derision, head bowed down, "your eyes.."

"My eyes?"

"Family...knows when you lie", he choked out.

Shinachiku nodded his head like he knew what it meant. He was dazed with exhaustion, his eyes drooped slightly, and the next time he looked at the place Sasuke stood to be greeted by Ichiraku ramen shop.

He did not even catch a sight of him running he was just. . . .gone. . . Just like that.

**Author's Note:**

> Yomi= hell in Shinto mythology
> 
> Konoha is the military part of Land of fire, this is cannon fact, source is Kishimoto's interview. Ikkyuu is the current daimyo in Boruto era. This was an idea I'd been toying around with for quite some time, an alternate post-cannon scenario, without the space alien thing. Timeline is 13 years since chapter 699.
> 
> This is my first fanfic ever so thank you for reading and devoting your time!


End file.
